Large numbers of electrical contacts can be finally processed, as by crimping a wire to each contact, by initially dumping a large number of the contacts into a feeder bowl. The feeder bowl is vibrated in a manner to advance contacts along a helical ramp to a feeder bowl outlet, with the contacts generally advancing one behind the other at the feeder bowl outlet. A mechanism lies at the feeder bowl outlet, which assures that the contacts are maintained in a predetermined orientation and lie one immediately behind another, and which, upon demand, drops one contact at a time into the final processor. The mechanism generally includes walls forming a track of predetermined width for a predetermined contact size, a vibrator which vibrates the track to advance the contacts forwardly therealong, and a pneumatically-operated mechanism which allows a single contact to fall into the final processor at selected times.
When a different size or type of electrical contact must be fed, then the track vibrator and release mechanism are detached from the track and a different size track is attached to the vibrator and release mechanism, with the release mechanism having to be adjusted for the different size of contact. Additional parts have to be detached from the old track and reattached, including a sensor that senses when the track is full and a blow off mechanism for blowing off contacts that are not properly seated onto the rear portion of the track. It requires considerable time and attention for a technician to remove various parts from the track, remove the track from the vibrator, and reattach a new track and the various parts that function with it.